China's Vice Premier Wang Qishan has stressed the need for banks to increase support for rural development and small businesses, in order to ease fundraising difficulties amid global economic uncertainty and monetary tightening.

Wang Qishan made the remarks during his two-day tour of northwestern China's Gansu Province, noting financial institutions should make renewed efforts to meet reasonable funding demand from small businesses and especially the agriculture industry.

The Vice Premier also says China's finance sector should strive to better handle the relationship between economic development, economic restructuring and checking inflation, continue to carry out prudent monetary policy and optimize credit structure.